Steve Jobs' 'strong message' to engineers that remained Apple's guiding doctrine till his death

Apple founder Steve Jobs once told the company engineers that the people who make real breakthroughs are not just thinkers, but also doers. In the early 1990s, Jobs addressed Apple engineers where he said “The doers are the major thinkers”, further citing Leonrado Da Vinci. He added “Did Leonardo have a guy off to the side thinking five years out what he would paint? Of course not. Leonardo was the artist, but he also mixed all his own paints.”


Jobs remained committed to this principle until his death in 2011. “There is no difference in our industry,” he once said. “The people that have really made the contributions have been the thinkers and the doers.” This core belief shaped Apple’s approach to product design and innovation throughout his leadership.


Jobs believed that hands-on work was essential for true creativity and discovery. “It’s very easy to take credit for thinking,” he added. “Dig a little deeper and you find the people who really did it were also the people that worked through the hard intellectual problems as well,” he then stated.


Steve Jobs’ beliefs inspire Elon Musk and others

As per a Benzinga report, Jobs often referred to historical figures like Vinci to explain why Apple blended design, engineering and hardware under one roof. The message continues to influence entrepreneurs today.


In 2024, Tesla CEO Elon Musk reposted Jobs’ quote mentioned above (The doers are the major thinkers. The people who really create the things that change this industry are both the thinker-doer in one person) on X (formerly Twitter) with a one-word comment: ‘True’.


Venture capitalist Paul Graham has also said founders learn best “by building,” not just by thinking.